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Tuesday, December 25, 2012

From left: cartridges for Pocket Brush pen, two cartridges for Fude Pen and the new Fude Pen.

This is already an "old" story.
I was very busy with Xmas affairs in the past weeks and I had no time to publish this article suddenly.

Though, I tell you, now.

I was so much happy for the sample Fude Pen that Pentel sent me, that I decided to immediately order another one with a finer brush nib, needed for details, and some cartridges for the Pocket Brush pen and the Fude Pens.

I placed my order two fridays ago. I also wrote an email to feedback Pentel with my impressions about the Fude Pen, that were very positive, and I published an article Pentel Fude Pen arrived! Yeah!, here on my blog.

The following monday, Pentel wrote me to tanks for my positive feedback and article and that they would send a gift.

The t-shirt! ;-)

Two days later, december 18, I received a packet with a Pentel t-shirt and a little pen. Yeah!
They must read in my mind, if they know I love gadgets! :-D
Maybe they are Jedy knights. ;-)

One more day, december 19, and I received my thiner brush Fude Pen and the cartridges. And I was so much happy that it is not describable. ;-)

Now I am ready to work on a pair of comics with my new Pentel pens. When finished I will send a link to Pentel, since they have been so kind to me. ;-)

Morena and I were quite surprised to see so many originals. The promotional posters, placed all around the city, are not very clear about the contents of the exhibition. We were worried that it were the usual waste of time (and money) like most of the events that take place in our forgotten city. And, considering the nature of doubts that Monica (another friend of mine) expressed, during our last conversation, it seems that Morena and I were not the only two persons worried.

I must say that I confirmed Magnus as the best italian comic artist ever.
Most of the artworks of the other artists look good when printed, at the smaller size used for the Bonelli's issues (about 16 x 21 cm), but loose all their beauty at the original artwork size (about an A3). On the original artworks it is possible to see errors, character proportions mistakes, inking flaws and so on.Magnus artworks are perfect! No inking errors! No perspective or proportion mistakes! His sketches look like the finals of most of the other artists.

Though, the money spent (6 Euros) are worth it. Seeing the original artworks permitted me to deduce possible tips, tricks and the exact tools used by artists. Most of them use nibs, not only for cross hatching, but also for the thinest strokes (usually to continue a brush stroke). Most of them use brush very little to ink few black areas.

Though, I like fine grained paper and ink with very quick movements and it appears that Pocket Brush releases too few ink on the nib and behaves like a dry brush. That behavior was unexpected and undesirable for me (with an exception when I want special effects).

Therefore I wrote a feedback email to Pentel customer support, and they, very kindly, sent me this sample product.

Now, I am patiently going to understand how the product works. Unfortunately the instructions, on the back side of the package, are written in japanese.
At a first sight, I thought that the sample package does not include any refill. Then I browsed the Pentel web site for more informations and I found that the body is the refill actually.

The next step was to figure out how to soak the bristles of the brush with ink. The solution could seem very simple, but it was not for me... with the instructions in japanese. Furthermore, I had not much time to read them more carefully, since I had to go out.

Anyway, the body is squeezable, to push ink in to the brush bristles, and I tried to squeeze it, but it did not work yet.

Uhm! Mumble, mumble!

...

Oh, great! I googled and I found a forum, where someone explains that the red ring, that separates refill from the nib, has to be removed and then the refill has to be screwed in, till it fits completely inside.

Done! Then I squeezed the refill several times, until the brush was full of ink and, when ready, I tried some strokes on paper. It is good, but I think it needs to be used few times (like the Pocket Brush) before to produce better performances.

Honestly, if I watched more carefully the illustrations on the back ok the package, I could have figured out it by myself. ;-)